Dig the Doug Fir

No lumberjack license required at Portland's new log cabin lounge

The snows of Mt. Hood may be 50 miles due east, but at the Doug Fir Lounge on East Burnside Street, there's a restaurant and bar with a rustic mountain mood.

The site of a motel diner four decades ago, the Doug Fir has taken the '60s groove and updated it with log cabin chic. On tap are hot bands on the basement stage, cool cocktails at the bar, and Northwest comfort food served 21 hours a day. Look for venison, rabbit, buffalo, and a specialty dish called Drunken Buck ― elk roast simmered all day in red wine, berries, and herbs ($19).

Urban lumberjacks and jills can belly up to a bar made of tightly bound bundles of lumber. In all, there are 2,700 linear feet of logs at the Doug Fir, not to mention antlers ― both the real and faux (blown in mirrored glass) varieties. Outside in the courtyard, there's a faux fire (natural gas) in a firepit, where the cocktail set congregates to heed the call of the wild. If you end up staying past your bedtime, check into a room at the adjacent Jupiter Hotel ― and come back to the Doug Fir for a logger-style biscuits-and-gravy breakfast.